Even if you’re a big fan of the Mario universe, it’s possible that there are facts and secrets that haven’t come to your attention before. So, welcome to our selection of secrets of Mario games, both old and new.
Yoshi is in Super Mario 64
Super Mario 64 is one of the best Mario games, beloved by fans. The game revolutionized the world of three-dimensional platformers and gave players many hours of fun, although it was a bit lonely: traveling through the castle of Princess Peach, Mario very rarely had to meet allies on his way. However, among them was our old friend – Yoshi.
If this was a surprise for you, then it is not surprising, because he could not be met just like that. First, Mario had to collect all the stars in the game, after which there was an opportunity to get to the roof of Peach Castle with the help of a cannon, where he was met by Yoshi. Even though it was impossible to play for him, the meeting was still worth it: Yoshi conveyed to Mario a special message from his creator Shigeru Miyamoto, taught him the sparkling triple jump and increased the number of additional lives by 100 pieces.
Bricks are actually alive
In the original Super Mario Bros., breaking bricks is an integral part of the gameplay. But did you know that there was an unexpectedly tragic story behind them? The instructions for the game say that the Coupes invaded the peaceful kingdom of mushroom men and turned them all into bricks.
So every time you smash a brick block, you may be cutting off the life of an innocent local. Although, on the other hand, you are ridding him of eternal existence in a distorted form… Having learned about this detail of the plot, you begin to perceive what is happening in the game a little differently. That’s why reading manuals is a useful activity: well, how else could you guess about it?
The Frightening Story of Kusalkin On the Chain
Kusalkin On the Chain is one of the most formidable enemies among those that constantly appear in the series of games about Mario. To many, it resembles a tethered dog, and this is for a reason. It turns out that the appearance and principle of operation of this monster was inspired by an incident that happened to Shigeru Miyamoto when he was still a child. A dog ran to him and wanted to bite him, but the chain prevented the animal from getting close enough, and Miyamoto was not injured.
Recalling this episode of his life, Miyamoto invented Kusalkin, specially endowing him with canine qualities: this is both the ability to bark and the behavior characteristic of a guard dog, which the Kusalkins periodically demonstrate.
Star World
Super Mario World for the SNES was a great game where you could do a lot and see a lot. However, there was one place that only the most curious players who wanted to study the game up and down found.
Those who persistently searched for secrets, sooner or later discovered one of the five possible entry points to the so-called Star World, where there were several short levels, and there were also different versions of Yoshi. In addition, having found a secret way out of this world, it was possible to get into another world – the Special World, where there were also additional levels. Just think: Super Mario World was played by so many people, and most of them must have missed the whole world.
The events of Super Mario Bros. 3 could have been a production
For many years, the theory was popular among fans that the events of Super Mario Bros. 3 were a spectacle. See for yourself: the game begins with raising the curtain, the blocks do not hang in the air, but are either bolted on or held on chains hanging from above, and even objects for some reason cast a shadow on the sky, as if this is not the sky at all, but the back of the scenery. All of this suggested that what was happening was just a theatrical production, and Mario wasn’t really in real danger.
This theory was very popular, and recently the creator Mario Shigeri Miyamoto confirmed that the guesses are correct, and those who played the game were actually just spectators of the play. In the world of games, this is one of the most popular fan theories, which eventually turned out to be the truth confirmed by the developer.
Many cameos in Super Mario RPG
Super Mario RPG was the first game in the series created outside of Nintendo. The development of this ambitious RPG in the Mario universe was engaged in the studio Squaresoft. The game had five main playable characters, unique graphics and ironic humor, thanks to which both players and critics received it very warmly.
Another favorite feature of the game was the numerous cameos – short appearances of characters from other universes. During the passage of the game you will meet many popular heroes of games from Nintendo and Square Enix, including Link, Samus and Donkey Kong.
Mario changed his name several times
We all know and love the cheerful plumber Mario, but not everyone knows that he did not receive his current name immediately. In fact, this character had several names before his creators finally settled on the version familiar to us all. Miyamoto first called it “Mr. Video”, then it was called “Jumpman” for a while, and after further thought about what the game should be, it was finally renamed Mario, which in the end turned out to be a very good idea.
In addition to the name, Mario also changed jobs: appearing in various games, he was not only a plumber, but also a carpenter.
Super Luigi Bros
The game features a secret mode called Luigi Bros, which is essentially a remake of the original Super Mario Bros with Luigi as a playable character. This game can be opened by going through World 8 in Super Mario World 3D, or by having a New Super Luigi U save file on your Wii U console.
Birdo – the first transgender character in video game history
Birdo is one of the most unusual characters in the history of Mario’s adventures. This pink humanoid monster first appeared in Super Mario Bros. 2 and has since been present in the games of the series. He began his “career” in the series as one of Mario’s opponents, but eventually became his ally.
Because of its appearance, many people think that Birdo is the female version of Yoshi, but in fact it is not. According to the game manual for Super Mario Bros. 2, Birdo is actually a boy who considers himself a girl and wants to be one, which in turn makes him the first transgender character not only in the series, but also in the history of video games as a whole.
Mario originally had a gun.
In many games, the protagonist has some kind of deadly weapon is commonplace, but Mario for the most part does not use any of them. However, things could have turned out differently: initially, Miyamoto wanted his character to be armed, which means that both playing as Mario and his appearance would be different.
The control of the shooting Mario was also not conceived in the same way as in the final version of Super Mario Bros. The jump was originally on the gamepad button “up”, while the B button was responsible for acceleration, and the A button was for shooting. Had it stayed that way, we’d have a very different series of games that would have otherwise impacted the video game industry. But everything happened the way it happened, and instead of a permanent weapon, Mario received fireballs that he could launch by picking up the power-up.
Siren Beach is a controller from GameCube
Super Mario Sunshine was the second three-dimensional platformer in the series, but it is often undeservedly forgotten. The game was released on the GameCube in 2002, and although it could not boast of the scale of its innovative predecessor Super Mario 64, it was still a lot of fun to play. And Sunshine was not without a little secret.
If you take a closer look at Siren Beach, you can see the Easter egg: it turns out that the location of objects on it repeats the location of the controller buttons for the GameCube, and the contours of the beach are almost identical to the shape of the controller. This is best seen from the hotel – just look towards the sea and immediately understand what we mean.
Minus World
For all the time of the existence of Super Mario Bros., millions of people managed to play it, and everything that could be found in this game has long been found. However, a lot of people still do not know about the existence of a glitch / hidden world, which fans nicknamed “Minus World” (it owes its name to the inscriptions when loading the world – World -1).
To get there, you need to perform a whole sequence of certain movements, and therefore it is almost impossible to do this accidentally. Once in this world, you will not be able to get out of it (the ending in it is bugged), and therefore you are doomed to lose in the end.
Super Mario Bros. 2 wasn’t always a Mario game.
Super Mario Bros. 2 is one of the best-selling games of all time, and has also had a major impact on the industry. Some of its features became very popular and eventually migrated to many other games. But did you know that this bestseller wasn’t originally about Mario?
It turns out that the original Super Mario Bros. 2 was too complicated, and the developers had to quickly come up with something. As a result, they took the game Doki Doki Panic and adapted it to the characters and setting of the Mario universe. Thus, the real Super Mario Bros. 2 was released only in Japan, and the rest of the world essentially got a mod for Doki Doki Panic, which was easier to play.
The original game can be completed in 5 minutes
Speedruns are a popular way of passing games, the meaning of which is to come to the final in the shortest possible time. There are many games popular among speedrunners, but the original Super Mario Bros is perhaps the most legendary of them.
While for most of us it takes more than one hour, there are players who can reach the final in less than 5 minutes! Watching what they do, you begin to doubt the reality of what is happening, but this is really possible if you know about the slightest glitches and code errors and be able to use them competently. Other games in the series also attract the attention of speedrunners, but the ancestor of the series was and remains for them something of a gold standard.
The Impossible Coin on the Tiny Huge Island in Super Mario 64
And this is perhaps the most legendary of all the secrets and Easter eggs of the series. On Tiny Huge Island, 191 coins can be collected in Super Mario 64 – at least everyone thought so until one of the players discovered another one in 2002. But it didn’t end there.
The problem was that it was impossible to take it. For more than a decade, players tried unsuccessfully to do so, and the 192nd coin earned the nickname “impossible.” So it remained the only inaccessible coin in the history of the series, until in 2014 one player managed to finally get it, performing a perfectly calculated jump in time. The problem that for so long excited the minds of fans of the Mario universe, still turned out to be a solution.
Source: goliath.com
